The Pasta Dinner was a Success!

All Set and Ready to Go!

I am so proud of you for the great success that the pasta dinner was.  Everyone on our team was an important part of this!  From the table decorations to the entertainment to the restaurant staff, everything ran as smoothly as we could expect.  As I said to my ASE class, it is not just the people on the front lines that were important.  The people involved in the behind-the-scenes work equally helped us to pull this event off!
So...whether you could come to the dinner or not, just know that your hard work was appreciated.  We will let you know as soon as we can exactly how much we raised.  Yesterday we counted the change from the various fund raising stations, and we had over $400 in just that!  

Here are a few photos from the event....more to come...

The Second Shift Enjoying a Fun Moment

Our Menu

Above you can see a video of the hosts in action.  A professional job...


I will post more photos later.  I am doing this in the morning before school...and I need to start getting into my morning routine or I'll be late...
Again....a great job!

The PSAs Are Wonderful!

 

Mrs. Cook and I have been so pleased with how your PSA videos have come out.  Your imaginative minds have created some very professional looking products.  I am anxious for your parents to see them on Tuesday night!

I will put a few of these on the blog for you to see....the one above at first makes you think that there is a technical error..but there isn't!

We will use these PSAs to show other sixth grade classes before we begin our fund raising efforts during lunch in May.  Can you believe we have raised $12,645.48?  We are almost 2/3 of the way to our goal of $20,000.  You are truly following the Venturer motto that "one person can make a difference."

Speaking of our total...do you notice that we now have an "uneven" amount with 48 cents added....I think we have a trickster on our hands...maybe I need to do something to make our balance have zeros in the cents column...hmmmm......

I am not going to put all of your videos on the blog simply because it takes awhile for them to load.  I am also getting an error message on a few of them for having problems uploading to the blog.  I am going to send my sister the link to the blog so that she can see these great PSAs.  She used to be a middle school social studies teacher, and I think she'll be interested in what you created.  

These are all so great...and all so different.   I will post some pictures from the pasta dinner this week...

Don't forget to check out our totals as we get closer to May 21.  Below is a link to the Relay for Life webpage for the James River High School event, as well as a youtube video that does a great job of showcasing just exactly what Relay for Life is.

CLICK HERE for the Relay for Life website

Watch a youtube video.  It was on the blog a few months ago, but it is always good to watch it again....

The Pasta Dinner Preparations are Underway!

We are working hard on making the pasta dinner a smashing success.  Check out the photos from second period today as we are working on various committees to prepare for the dinner next week!

Working on the PSA directional poster

The table decorating committee hard at work

More table decorations!

Planning our sign

Banner Painting

Table centerpiece

Fun with painting

More painting fun

The banner is coming together

Sage words of wisdom from Mrs. Cook to the host/hostess committee

The luminaria committe hard at work

It Is Time to Post Again!

It is time to post again!  I have neglected my blog, but I think it is now time to post again as there are some great things to mention!

1.  My ASE class did a great job on the KMO competition on March 22.  You really were a great team, and I am proud of you for doing so well.  Below I've got a few links for you to check out.  One is a link of the KMO website so that you can look at the PDF which shows how our team did.  The second is a link to Swanson Middle School in Arlington, Virginia.  They were number one in the world, and I thought you might like to see their team on their school's website.

To go to the KMO website, CLICK HERE.
To go to the Swanson Middle School page, CLICK HERE.

2.  Our pasta dinner is coming together nicely!  We have just a little over a week left to prepare for it, and though we may have some things that might not go smoothly since this is our first time doing something like this, I think all will be good, mistakes and all.  We are doing this for a great cause, and I am so proud of all of you who are taking this seriously!  I will post pictures this week from all of our work in the cafeteria preparing for this event.

3.  Our Relay for Life team is doing a phenomenal job in raising funds to help fight cancer.  I cannot believe that we've already passed the $10,000 mark.  We have less than two months to go before the big event at James River.  Keep up your great fund raising efforts.  Check out the link below to go to our team page.  Read some of the personal stories that students have written.  They are very touching and sincere.  On a weekly basis, Mrs. Cook and I send Mr. Siddiqi the links to your personal pages.  He has had nothing but wonderful things to say about them.  You have impressed him, and you continue to impress us.  Keep it up!
To go to the relay website, CLICK HERE.

Learning How to Hula

Students have been studying American imperialism, and have complete reports on the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, American Samoa, and Cuba.  We've enjoyed learning about this current and former American possessions and have enjoyed sampling the different cuisines of these regions.  We even got to learn an Hawaiin hula dance.  Enjoy watching a video of this below:

ASE BizWorld Friendship Bazaar

What a great way to end our ASE class with such a successful bazaar.  You all did a great job.  Hopefully you had fun and enjoyed your time in this class.  Good luck to you in your next ASE endeavor!  Here are the pics that I took....

 

KMO News/Relay for Life

 KMO

Congratulations to everyone in my ASE class!  We did a great job in KMO.
We managed to take 2nd place in Virginia, and 11th place for the entire competition.  Click on the link below to check out our rankings!

KMO RESULTS PAGE


RELAY FOR LIFE

We will begin working on Relay for Life in full force once the new semester begins.  I have had a couple of inquiries on how to join the team.  Click on the link below, which will take you to James River High School's Relay for Life website.  The directions to join are easy.  You will need a parent to help you through the process, and you will have to pay a $10 registration fee.  We are going to go over this after the semester change, but if you are itching to join now, you can.  We have already had some 7th graders join the team.  

Remember...you don't have to join the team...it is an option for you.  Everyone will be working on Relay for Life assignments in ASE as part of our community service project for the Venturer team.  Joining the team is the icing on the cake!

Relay for Life Website

An Interactive Day in Social Studies

I am sitting here at the computer in my classroom playing around with the blog...I cannot wait until next semester when we all try our hand at blogging when we begin Relay for Life in full force.  Keeping a blog will not be a requirement, but I think it is something that you'll want to do.

Today was an eventful day in social studies with commercials and brochures due as well as mini-teaching assignments.  You all continue to impress me with your levels of creativity.  All I can saw is Wow!  I wish I had a camera or a video for every great moment today.  Here are a couple below!

First a video from four boys in my first period class!  What great fun we had laughing as we watched and listened to reasons why New England is just the greatest place to live!

Below, you see a British Official getting ready to argue his point to the colonists about why the Townshend Acts are indeed fair.

In the picture below, you can see an unfortunate tax collector has been tarred and feathered, in front of a classroom, and forced to drink tea.  Protest was alive today!   Hopefully you've all learned that there were two sides to this great argument.  You have done a excellent job of showing both sides, British and Colonial.

This student was not hurt in this reenactment.....though it looks pretty bad...!

The brochures were great too....I snapped a few shots second block...they were fabulous!



742 Isn't Bad!

What a great job on KMO today.  I was proud of you.  You worked well as a team, and enjoyed watching you all work together.  The lady at KMO sounded very encouraging about the score.  I will keep you posted when we get the final results. 

 Just a week and a half to go for ASE...full throttle on Biz World!

~Mr. McEwen

Relay for Life

My final posting for the day....!

With January upon us, it is time to begin thinking about Relay for Life.  Mrs. Cook and I will begin going over this information with you in January.  Check out the blog and edline to keep up with all of the great things that we will be doing.

At the bottom of this page I have a couple of links for you.  One is a link to our Venturer/Navigator page where you can officially join the team.  We will go over all of this information with you next month.  The second link includes some pictures from Relay for Life last year.  You can get an idea from these pictures that we had a lot of fun!

James River High School Relay for Life Website

Relay for Life May 2010 Pics