Art in the Community

By Kennedy Alston-Lucky

For ten Mondays, during January, February, and March,  Project Learn School’s (PLS), Jr. High students walked up Germantown Avenue to do art with Senior citizens at The Germantown Home. Lots of their projects had to do with nature and other earth elements. The last project they worked on was collaging pictures they found in magazines that fit the genre and the projects went on a wooden canvas.    

    Jill Sherman, the founder of this program, is an artist and a teacher of college students. Jill, being very comfortable with college students, originally started this program for them. Fortunately for PLS, she decided to use Jr, high students instead. Jill is new to working with seniors and middle school children but, said she enjoyed the experience. Having her own kids, Jill has always enjoyed the interaction between age differences, and feels as though everyone experiences something positive when leaving her program.

    Jill’s program took some preparation before she got it started. She needed to write an essay on what her project was about and show some example of her own artwork.  A jury then judged it to see if they thought it was a good idea. If it’s okayed the program would be official, and would run. Jill didn't have much trouble with the program, it was a little difficult deciding the lesson plan and sticking with it consistently. The project had a few bumps in the road, like lots of snow days. But went quite smoothly, for the most part.

Margaret and Elya making art
together.

  The kids also enjoyed the project as much as the adults. “ I like the senior citizen project because I am able to work with people outside of my age group, and helping them do stuff that might be difficult on their own,” said Nasya, one of the kids who attends the senior project.

    Project Learn was very grateful to be  apart of Jill Sherman’s project, and hopes to be able to participate in other activities like this very soon. This art project was fun and allowed the kids to interact with new people in their community. Everyone involved will remember their experience with fondness.  

Junior High Ski Trip

By Ian Holbrook

The Project Learn school (PLS) Junior High-only ski trip is an adventure to the Pocono Mountains that occurs annually in February. If you ski or snowboard, this trip is for you and, takes place at Jack Frost Big Boulder Ski Resort. The mountain is small but as a new skier or snowboarder, it will seem big and very entertaining.

Map of Jack Frost

    Liam Gallagher, teacher at PLS and sometimes chaperone for the ski trip, said the trip is at the mountain for about 5 hours. In the past, Liam would help get equipment for the kids and then hang out in the lodge. Liam hasn't been at PLS long enough to have never gone to Jack Frost but he said that one year they did not go. Liam said there have been injuries in the past and that two people have broken their wrists on the ski trip. He added that the food is not good there.

    This year, Aisha Anderson-Oberman, Junior High Social Studies teacher at PLS, Sean Leber, who teaches math for the 5th through 8th grades at PLS, and Rebecca Zeldin, the PLS Junior High English and Spanish teacher, were the teachers who went on the ski trip this year. The parents who joined were, John Holbrook, Linda Pollson, Tanyikia Alston, David Brommley and Brian Murphy. Two former PLS students, Sarah and Emily Grubb also joined the trip.

    Aisha Anderson-Oberman said  this was her first time going on the trip. Aisha really enjoyed the trip because she thought it was fun spending time with and talking to parents outside of school. Aisha was hoping to go tubing but the tubing section was closed. Aisha would like to go again and she hopes that the tubing will be open the next time.

    This was Sean’s first ski trip since he is a new teacher at PLS this year. He had a great time! Sean skied and he thought he did really well, even though he hadn't skied in six years. While the kids were skiing, he went down the green slopes and when they were not skiing and were doing ski lessons, he went down the blue and black slopes. Sean said it was hard for him to remember what it was like to learn how to ski so it was hard for him to help people ski. Sean was excited to go on this trip so he could see all of the new skiers attempting to learn a new skill.

    Rebecca Zeldin, also a new teacher at PLS, went on her first PLS ski trip and had a good time. Rebecca wishes she could do it every week. This was not the first time Rebecca has skied and she really enjoyed herself. It was hard for Rebecca to help kids who kept falling but it was easy for her to ski with people who had skied before. Rebecca skied down all of the slopes and she was excited to ski with people she liked hanging out with. She would go again in a heartbeat!!

     Fae Lobron is a first year Junior Higher, so it was her first ski trip and she had a blast! This year was Fae's first time to ever ski and she fell a lot. It was her first time skiing. However, she thought it was very fun. Fae thought it was easy to put the skis on but the actual skiing was hard for her. Fae went down a green slope -- only once. Fae was excited and wants to do the trip again.

    Jake Grubb is a eighth grader so this was his second ski trip because there was not a trip when he was in sixth grade. Jake has always liked the ski trip. Jake snowboarded and he did great. It was not the first time he had snowboarded. Jake had a hard time learning to get his balance in the air. He went down black diamond and terrain (ramps, etc.) slopes, which were very challenging. Jake was excited to snowboard and he would do it again.

At the mountain there are, five green circle slopes, seven blue square slopes and eight black diamond slopes. Green circle slope are the easiest slopes, blue square slopes are harder than green circles but not the hardest, while black diamond slopes are the hardest. The mountain also features a Slope style run. 

This trip is a very entertaining trip.  Many kids look forward to being in the Junior High just so they can go on this trip.