Yahoo recently released a tool called Mapmixer. It allows you to overlay a map of your own on top of Yahoo Maps. You can make your maps puplic or private. For example I overlaid our evacuation map on top of Yahoo Maps and have made it privately available to our staff via our staff bulletin page. Below is an example of an embedded map, the USC campus...
Via Ogle Earth...
Technorati Tags: maps, USC, Yahoo Maps
Again this school year 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students at Lewis will benefit from the Reed College Biology Outreach Program. This continuing partnership between Reed and our school helps to enhance our science program by offering an inquiry-based science curriculum with Reed College biology faculty and Reed students who work with our students and teachers in our classroom. This years' focus is Watersheds and Fresh-water Ecology. As part of this unit students will be raising Chinook eggs provided by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in our classrooms for release as fry into Reed College Canyon. (map) An overview of the Reed Biology Outreach program was recently published in the Reed Magazine: Teaching About the Birds and the Bees (and the Flowers and the Frogs).
Technorati Tags: Reed College, Lewis Elementary
On Sunday, Lewis hosted a performance art event that is part of the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art's Time Base Art Festival. Gary Wiseman, a local artist, and former Lewis student, held a Recess Tea Party on the playground at Lewis.
Tea Project, a series of interactive performances, will inspire, instruct, and reinvigorate as it revisits sites and themes from the artist’s Portland childhood and creates temporary refuges in our social landscape. Part community ritual, part spontaneous improvisation, and part consensual transformation, Tea Project redefines active participation and blurs the boundaries between viewer and performer.
The Lewis event involved a memory Gary has of recess at Lewis. Specifically it involved recess and a rule instituted by the principal at the time that children could not engage in chase games. The performance involved dancers acting as school girls chasing Gary during recess while under the guise of "just jumping roping". Many Lewis students took part and the event was a great way to start the year. As I said to the kids involved, sometimes you paint a picture and put it on a wall and we call it art. Sometimes you go to a concert and the symphony plays, and we call it art. And sometimes we come together and share a memory, and we call it art...
On Wednesday we had our first day of school. Our enrollment is up 15 students from last year and our single 5th grade class is bulging with 36 students. I'm hoping we can get some additional support to handle the size, but will not know about that for a week or so.
On Thursday we had a visit from Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski. He spent time visiting classrooms and talking to students. His is an interesting life story, and one that demonstrates the power of education to change lives. He grew up in an orphanage in St. Louis and after high school joined the Marines. He credits the GI Bill for allowing him to pursue higher education and achieve the accomplishments that he has in his life.
On Sunday at 3:15 pm local artist, and former Lewis Elementary student, Gary Wiseman will be staging "A Recess Tea Party" on the Lewis playground. This is part of the (PICA) Portland Institute for Contemporary Art Time-Based Art Festival.
The Time-Based Art Festival is a contemporary art festival of regional, national, and international artists presenting theatre, dance, music, film, visual exhibition and installation. PICA presents moments of movement and imagery under bridges, over rivers, on stages and throughout the city—all in Portland, Oregon USA. The TBA Festival examines and celebrates every form of contemporary art and is the only festival of its kind in North America.
Several Lewis students will take part in a choreographed remembrance of a playground encounter (something about girls chasing boys during recess, a timeless theme... :-) ) when Gary was a student at Lewis. Tea and cupcakes will be served and the event is open to the public. So if you happen to be in Portland on Sunday, come on out and take part...
Jim Gates recently related a story about a teacher who made a difference in his life. A great post to start the new school year. Thanks Jim...