Recycling - 1 week later & 250 gallons saved!

We had a great run this week, with lots of stuff that got recycled. Lots of students volunteered to help sort the recyclables, and organize the lunch lines. We had one large 50 gallon trash bag full of plastic recyclable materials everyday. We reduced actual trash by 2/3! By the end of the week, most of the students had gotten used to what we were doing, and were sorting their garbage themselves, placing plastics and aluminum in the correct bins, and trash in another.

Students are helping others to sort their trash, and educating them on what is, and what is not recyclable. By the end of the week we saw many sorting their own before reaching our sorting station.

Student volunteers pose with one week's worth of recyclable materials. Wow! That's a lot of stuff that could have been thrown out!

Here's another view of all the 'trash' we saved, and that will be recycled this week. The steel cans in the front are from the kitchen personnel - that's what a lot of our food comes in (stuff like fruit, tomato ketchup, beans, etc.) 5 bags in all (50 gallon bags) = 250 gallons of recyclable stuff from lunch at FMS!

Scavenger Hunt at FMS

I made a scavenger hunt (orienteering) to keep the students motivated and refreshed during the OAT week. The 'hunt' includes ten controls, and have easy, but fun, questions on them for the students to answer. Each team receives a control punch / answer card that they carry with them. It includes a description of the location of each control should they need it. The entire event seems to average about 20 minutes for the student teams (2-4 per team seems to work well).

The loop goes around the high school, and I used orange paper when I printed the controls. They are laminated, and I found that if one tapes one corner with duct tape, then punches a hole, then attach the control using a zip tie, things work really well!

All the kids so far have enjoyed the orienteering event, and I plan on using the same format in the future, but with review questions, quiz questions, etc.

MW sounds off!

I think it is very important to recycle because it helps our environment. I also believe that the sixth graders do have a chance of winning the contest! I just have one question. Are you accurately measuring the liquid waste and are you really measuring the recycling? I myself recycle and promote others to do so as well. I believe that if everyone recycled we would be living in a better place and we could in the future.

MW, 6th grade

FMSSC Recycles!

FMS Student Council is sponsoring a recycling effort in order to promote Earth awareness in anticipation of Earth Day, April 22nd, 2008. As a first effort, they decided to recycle the various plastics used / thrown away during lunch at the Middle School. In just one day, where lunch is served to about 450 students, they were able to collect an entire garbage can full of recyclable materials - mostly plastic milk pint containers from Smith's Dairy.

Student Council is collecting recyclable stuff, including the liquid waste, for an entire week, in hopes that it will spur enough awareness to begin school district-wide recycling of plastics and aluminum. In addition, they are holding a competition between grade levels to see who can recycle the most, and produce the least liquid waste.

Students at FMS hold up one day's worth of recyclable materials from lunch. Just imagine how much we've already thrown out! Maybe we can do better in the future...

Blogging 101 - FREE Workshop

Do you want to connect with your students? Here's your chance:

Blogging 101 is for any educator or staff member interested in learning a new way to communicate with their students, parents, and community alike.

No prior skills are needed - everything you need to know will be taught during this 1 hour workshop! You will learn:

-How to set up your own blog
-How to manage posts, comments, links
-Online Safety / Passwords

All workshops are taught by Andreas Johansson (FMS Teacher), and are absolutely FREE! Sign up now to reserve your spot, or show up on a day listed below. Please be on time, as we have lots to cover.

SCHEDULE:

Blogging 101 - Tuesday, April 22, 3-4 PM - Room # 115 @ FMS
Blogging 101 - Wednesday, April 23, 3-4 PM - Room # 115 @ FMS
Blogging 101 - Thursday, April 24, 3-4 PM - Room # 115 @ FMS

Blogging 101 - Tuesday, April 29, 3-4 PM - Room # 115 @ FMS

Coming up: Blogging 102 - Blogging and the Curriculum

Any Questions? Email Andreas Johansson - falconblogger@gmail.com

Eastern Standard Time

Breakfast of Champions

Here's what Mr. Johansson eats for breakfast every morning:

Nature's Path Organic Instant Hot Oatmeal (variety pack) + handful of Craisins + tablespoonful of Jif Creamy Peanut Butter with Honey. Mix it all up, and you can go for a long time. Oatmeal like this really does stick to your ribs... He eats it, of course, using his Brunton Titanium Spork!

Google Maps Disaster...

Someone deleted the 7th grade map... that means that all the hard work the 7th graders made during this project is lost, possibly forever! We will try to contact Google in order to undo the delete action, but we can't promise anything yet. Check back later for news on this matter.

Google Map Project - Student Comments

Dear Student:

Please tell us how you liked the Google Maps Project!

Did it help you develop skills on the Internet? How about using Google MyMaps? What did you learn? What could you have done better / improved? What should we have done instead? How can we use this project in the future? Would you like to do more projects like this?

Please let us know by adding a comment or two (click the link below).