Alee Academy School Newsletter
October 10, 2011
Volume 1, Issue 1
Announcements
The second annual “Kids for a Cause” canned food drive will begin Monday October 31, 2011. Each homeroom class will be encouraged to bring in non-perishable food items. Students will receive one ALEE ACADEMY REWARD TICKET for each item they bring in. The food drive will continue through Wednesday November 16. All food items will be delivered to a local food bank by Mrs. Emerick and/or Mrs. L’Heureux with help from the five students who bring the most food. The homeroom class that brings the most food items will be awarded with a free lunch. Together we can help feed families this holiday season and feel good doing it!
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and once again Alee joins our community in “Wrestling for the Cure.” The event raises not only money, but awareness of the efficacy of early breast cancer screening and treatment. The Chicken Wing Cook-Off will be held on Saturday, October 22 at Cadwell Park in Umatilla from 5PM to 9PM. In addition to chicken wings, Alee volunteers (teachers and staff) will serve smoked barbecue pork sandwiches, which have been described as, “…the best ever.”
Student Spotlight - Abnee John
Senior Abnee John is only four-and-a-half credits away from the freedom of graduation. Abnee, who currently is taking classes and participates in Alee Academy’s Internship program with the City of Eustis, has aspirations of becoming a full-time employee for the Parks and Recreation Department. Abnee’s positive attitude and responsible behavior toward his success are reflected in his feelings about school. When asked what education means to him, Abnee stated, “My education represents my future.” Alee Academy administrators also notice Abnee’s extraordinary effort and behavior both in and out of the classroom. Principal Jennings Neeld states, “It has often been said that a leader must be charismatic yet when I consider Abnee, I find that he is the antithesis of that classical leader; he is our student leader in the shadows. Hisleadership is not through his ego nor in his force of character, rather Abnee’s leadership is seen more in his thoughts and actions. He has matured and grown as a student where his leadership is by example. Abnee is highly task-oriented and quite benevolent to others. He does not seek attention as would the charismatic leader but his approach tends to be more in handling relationships and building rapport with his own personal touch and of course his engaging smile. Intensive Reading teacher Mrs. Wilt agrees that Abnee represents an exemplary student, “Abnee is always easy to get along with. He completes his class work even when the class is distracted. He dresses respectfully and has a willing attitude.”
English 1 and 2
All of Mrs. Emerick’s English classes will begin descriptive writing this month. The classes will be practicing the grammar skills they have learned thus far and will continue to build on their writing skills. Both English I and English II students will take a walk to the lake and become familiar with the sights, sounds, smells, and textures of their surroundings. This little “field trip” will help the students gain a better understanding of how to use adjectives effectively for descriptive writing. As we continue to prepare for the FCAT writes in March, the English 2 students will progress from the descriptive writing into narrative writing. These students will work through the writing process to create a story about a day in the life of a farmer during the fall months. They may even have to conduct some research! While the English II students move on to narrative writing, the English I students will continue strengthening their sentence structure and use of description during their writing with a variety of essay topics given throughout the month of October. Parents, please visit www.planbook.com to view the lesson plans for Mrs. Emerick’s classes. You will need her email address and student key (Mrs. Emericks Class) to access her planbook.
English 3 and 4
October
Be on the lookout for English 3 students to be displaying their interpretations of key scenes in “The Scarlet Letter.” Students have been instructed to represent important scenes from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s epic through a collage, drawing, illustration or other approved method. Scenes will be on display through November. English 4 students have been busily gathering items for their “Frank-Me-Stein” projects which will showcase their mad-scientist skills. Students will be constructing their “monster” and writing their super spooky narratives during the month of October.
November
November will bring the Second Annual Kids for Caring Food Drive. English 3 students will be challenged with exceeding last year’s total food drive by donating cans of non-perishable food items. Students will also be exploring the merits of charity and civility through writing and research. English 3 will also begin reading “The Jungle.”
English 4 students will also be participating in the Second Annual Kids for Caring Food Drive. Donations of non-perishable food items will be accepted for the food drive and the items collected will be taken to a local food bank. The class that is able to gather the most items will be awarded with a lunch. In addition to collecting donations, English 4 students will be reading “A Christmas Carol” where they will
also learn about the merits of charity.
Mrs. Mann
Science has received the garden towers. The delivery of the towers was video recorded to be placed on the web about the impact of garden towers on students attitudes toward food. Mr. Neeld has ordered an incubator and fertilized eggs. We will be watching the development of the eggs as they are incubating, hatching the chicks, building a coop and then using the chickens as part of our animal behavior unit. A number of students have volunteered to teach tricks to their “adopted” chickens. After the eggs hatch, building chicken coops will be the
next project.
When the weather cools we will fire up the aquaponics unit and redo the butterfly garden. In the meantime, we are studying the pH of Florida water and osmosis etc. with eggs.
Finance News - Ms. Lender
Students have begun their real world simulation activity on the computers. As each student goes through the lessons, they learn about leasing vs. obtaining a loan for a car, renting a house, enrolling in school, finding a job, taxes, etc. At the end, they will be given a project where their goal will be to keep their Sim alive while becoming educated, buying a house and maintaining a healthy balanced life schedule. Simultaneously, we have started the Stock Market Game. This game allows our students to compete against other students across the country to
see who can make or keep the most money in their account. While playing the game, they must research stocks, bonds and mutual funds to determine what, how much and when to buy. Please check it out at www.stockmarketgame.org . We will have a speaker (Mr. Eric Blamick) in class 10/13/2011 to help the students determine the best investment choices for their team as well as
to answer any questions that they might have.