National Youth Institute---Day 1

Today was packed. We all managed to get up and out of the Marriott by 9:00. And, that means that we were late getting to our activities at the Arch, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We left our luggage at the hotel, and our shuttle driver from last night brought it to us at the airport when we were finished.

After we made it to the Metro, we found out that they were only running one track due to construction, and so it took us about 45 minutes to get downtown. We enjoyed the scenery in the park on our walk over to the Arch. I have to admit here that I am totally scared of heights, and really didn't want to go up... But, I figured I probably couldn't let the students go up by themselves, and so I went. After clinging to the side of the arch near the windows for about 5 minutes, I did manage to look out one or two windows before going back down.
When we left the Arch, it was really hot & humid, so we opted for a cab back to the airport and caught the shuttle to the conference hotel. The first order of business after check-in? Taking a shower!!
Then we went over to the conference center, and made it just in time for the opening session and dinner. The students went to a workshop called Spark the Wave, and the advisers went to a reception. We met back up for the swap meet, ice cream social, and one of St. Louis' infamous thunderstorms. The conference center sprung a leak, and had about 53 gallons of water in the front lobby!
Pictures from the Arch
NYI---Friday 5/30/08

National Youth Institute---Day 0 (Traveling to/from)

Update!
The flights home were a little more eventful than the flights out. I was pulled for extra screening in St. Louis. Okay, so that's not a big surprise, but they didn't even accept my letter from TSA this time! As it turned out, there had been an incident of some type at Lambert recently, and they stepped up their screenings. One of the agents did make a comment after I explained that the way we book travel for disaster assignments was how I wound up on the list, and how I knew I was on the list. I was wearing a very obvious Red Cross t-shirt, and he says, "Gee. I guess getting searched like this on your way to help people makes you feel appreciated!". I had to laugh, although he does have a point. The extra screening almost made us miss the flight, but we made it. We almost missed the flight in Minneapolis, too, because the gate agent told us the flight was leaving out of C7, but it was really out of C15. An electric cart driver got us where we needed to go. On the flights back we played Monopoly on my Palm pilot...
Here are all of the pictures from the flights.

Traveling to St. Louis
After a brief delay at Dulles, we finally made it to St. Louis! The delay was because of a traffic control hold at La Guardia & Newark, which caused late planes at gates in Dulles. The only comment on the plane was how SMALL it is...

The Marriott Courtyard is very nice, and the staff was really super helpful! We were especially pleased with our shuttle driver, who helped us find a restaurant when we arrived!
Tomorrow: Visiting the arch, seeing the movie about building the arch, and then on to NYI.

We published a book!

A few months ago, my students started making a book. We actually made two: One as a concluding project for our amusement park research, and another about when we made ice cream during class. Originally, we were going to try and add translations of our English writing with the help of our advanced ESOL classes, but we ran out of time because of state testing. If we had waited, the students would not have been able to see their printed books, and since we have some seniors who helped, I decided that we could always add translations at another time.
We paid $12.99 for each book; I bought one copy of the set, and the librarians bought one copy of the set. The set the library purchased will be available for students to check out. I've also posted them to the blog, using a rather nice feature that MixBook does in creating a version using Flash. I will note that there is an issue with the ice cream book; perhaps the Flash version has a limit to the number of pages it can view. I don't know, but the pages about different ice cream flavors (licorice and bacon & egg with toast!) and how ice cream can be served are missing in this version. They do appear in the print copies we purchased.

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/travel/amusement-parks-391449?vk=xElW3WBar6

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/making-ice-cream-353160?vk=8TkAEreXRB

National Youth Institute

The youth conference that I've been yammering about for the last 3 or 4 months is next week. I'm taking two students half-way across the country, by plane. We even have to change planes! On the flight out, we're flying to Cleveland, and then to St. Louis. On our return, we're stopping in Minneapolis before heading back to Virginia!

It seems that one of the interesting activities will be getting to see "commercials" created by the other participants. We decided to go ahead and make one with an America's Next Top Model theme. The two students attending the conference liked the idea, but had to run off so they could go on the band's spring trip to... CLEVELAND (no, I'm not joking!). And so, two of our underclassmen club members, along with a few other students, a guidance counselor and 2 teachers did our best to put this video together... Just ignore the random students in the hallway, and make sure to turn up your volume. I haven't quite figured out the volume control on the new camcorder yet!

Technology Updates

Well, I've certainly been remiss in posting lately! This isn't to say that there aren't very cool technology things going on, but maybe that there are too many really cool technology things going on?

The students just finished their Trip Planning projects. Lessons that I've learned from this? Assign a date for the travel, and the amount of money they have to spend. Don't ask them to find prices for one-way fares, because most of the travel websites default to round-trip, and the frustration isn't worth it. If you need one way, divide the round trip price by 2. Remember that if your students choose a country that doesn't speak English, you will have to find menus they can read so they can plan their meals... The same holds true is they pick a place that isn't using the US Dollar as their currency, because this will make their numbers seem incorrect. And lastly, make sure that they know WHERE they are going... Is it Paris, France, or Paris, Texas? No, its NOT Paris Hilton! And we're not visiting the new Hooter's Bar & Casino in Las Vegas, either!

In the middle of this, we took a break to make brownies for the community service club's Concession Stand sales. You'll find the brownie video here....



My group, the girl's Lacrosse team, and our Band & Chorus groups sold pizza, snacks, soda and baked goods when our school hosted the Odyssey of the Mind competition in April. This was the statewide tournament, and I'm pleased to say that after all the bills were paid, we cleared $450! That's not bad for 6 hours (not counting all the time we spent baking!). Some of the money was used as a donation from the club to the local March of Dimes Walk-A-Thon, and some for our upcoming trip. This year, we were able to give the March of Dimes nearly $200 between walk pledges, selling awareness ribbon keychains, and the concession sale stands. We also had 12 walkers on the day of the event, despite the nasty weather.
We also managed to raise enough money for 2 students to go to the National Youth Institute Conference in St. Louis at the end of this month!