Focus on a New Student

By Zoe Gold

There are two new Jr. Highers this year at Project Learn School (PLS), one girl, one boy. Have you met the one named Carmen yet?  She likes to dance, and go on vacations with her family!
    Carmen Clarke is fourteen years old and she is in the second year in the Jr. High, but her first year at PLS. Carmen came to PLS from The Montessori School on Dresher Road in Ft. Washington.  She says she likes PLS better because you can be more independent.  Her favorite subject so far is art.  She says she likes how in art you can be who you want, and that it’s fun to work with the different materials, like clay or papier mache.  She also likes how “PLS is fun and the students are nice.”  Carmen found out about PLS by driving by it and noticing that it looked interesting.  She was coming back from an interview with another school.
    Carmen has a sister named Jennifer, who is 23, a brother, Christopher who is 21, and Carlton Jr. who is 20.  Carmen’s parent’s are Carmen Clarke, a translator for Spanish, and Carlton Clarke, an architect.  Currently, Carmen has no pets; she used to have a German Shepherd, a bird, and a hamster, but they all died.
    Carmen’s favorite activity to do with her family is to go on vacations. Carmen’s mother was born in El Salvador and Carmen’s grandparents, her aunt’s, and uncles all still live in there. She really likes when her family goes on vacation there to visit.   

Calaca Feliz: A Restaurant Review

By Dylan Allender

  Calaca Feliz is a very nice Mexican restaurant in Fairmount. Calaca Feliz is Spanish for ‘happy bones’ and the paintings on the wall of skeletons are just that. This restaurant has great food. The owners names are Brian Sirhal and Tim Spinner, who is also the executive chef. One of the nice things about Calaca Feliz is that they have a good kid’s menu. It has a large variety of foods.
 When I recently went to this restaurant with my mom, dad and grandfather, I had carnitas taco and so did my grandfather. To drink I had a virgin margarita to drink (non-alcoholic of course -- I’m nine).The tacos were made with pork and were great. My drink was very good. My mom had grilled shrimp and said it was great. I tried something called a tamale, which is a kind of corn entre. My dad had this.  I thought it was pretty bland and I didn’t really like it. For dessert we had different ice creams and sorbets like choclate y  banana, orange and vanilla and a vanilla chiro, a Mexican cookie.   
     After going to Calaca Filez I  am completely sure that I will go there again. In my view it is an awesome restaurant and one to experience at least once.

The pictures on the wall at Calaca Feliz are of dancing skeletons.  

First Semester Electives

By Nasya H.

Every year, for the last 40 years, Project Learn School (PLS) students in Lisa’s group and the Jr. High have been allowed to take electives. The PLS students get to choose their electives each semester. Liam Gallagher, PLS Science and English teacher says, “Electives allow students to participate and choose a class to learn about.”  

  The students at PLS have electives on Mondays and Thursdays and Tuesdays and Fridays from 11:15am to 12:00pm. These classes are taught by some of the PLS teachers. This year the Monday/Thursday electives are Slam Poetry, French, Memoirs and The Eighth Grade Elective. The Tuesday/Friday electives are Forces & Motion, Chorus, Boot camp, Portfolio and Journalism. Here is a brief description of each of the first semester electives.

Slam Poetry

    Slam Poetry is usually when people compete over who has the best Poem. However, the PLS elective, taught by Jr. High teacher Aisha Anderson-Oberman, it’s about learning different kinds of poems and different ways to perform them. Aisha choose to teach this elective because she had some extra time this year and she wanted to do something she really likes doing. “I’m really enjoying working with the different age groups and I love hearing their poems,” says Aisha, “but it will be a challenge if I do this elective again, and if some of the same students joined along with new students, how will I teach them?”

Memoirs

    Memoirs is an elective about making a book and filling it with memories. This elective is taught by Joan Fox, Project Learn’s art teacher, and Lisa Pack, also a PL teacher.  This is Joan’s first time doing the elective but it was previously  taught before by former teacher, Cara Rulli. Joan got the idea of doing this elective in staff meeting, “When Lisa  said that she would do it with me, I knew this was a good idea.” Elie, a student in Lisa’s Group says, “I like that we get to make food and read books and make memoirs about them.”  Joan and Lisa hope to create a mini cookbook with favorite recipes from the kids and their memories  about those foods.  

Boot camp

    Boot camp is a life fitness program about using your body and having a healthy heart rate. This elective is taught by Project Learn’s office manager, Roni Anton. Roni wanted to do this elective because she loves to exercise and she thought it would be fun for kids. “I like seeing my students set goals and the reaching them; they feel good which makes me feel good,” says Roni. Roni would do this elective again because she’s really enjoying it but she would want to have more equipment. She also thinks some kids in her elective have a love-hate kind of feeling about it. Jhakur, a student in the Jr. High, says, “We do lots of workouts, like squats, push ups and burpees.”

Forces & Motion

    Forces & Motion is an elective taught by the Science and Literacy teacher at PLS, Liam Gallagher. It is about forces, motions, and engineering. Liam got the idea of teaching this elective because he got a science kit that he wanted to use and he knew lots of students would like to build things. “I like teaching forces and motion because it gives kids a chance to explore different kinds of engineering,” says Liam. This is  the first time Liam has done an elective like this and he says he would definitely do it again.

Portfolio

    Portfolio is a drawing elective taught by Joan Fox, the PL art teacher. Joan wanted to do this elective to help students who want to go to the Creative And Performing Arts High school (CAPA), Joan also works after school once a week with students applying to CAPA. Joan is deciding on whether  to have the kids do a specific lesson or let them set a drawing goal, like when she taught a former elective,  ‘Draw a day.’

French

   French is a language elective taught by the PLS math and music teacher Liz Ben-Yaacov. This elective about learning the French language and sharing it with others. Liz has  been speaking French since she was in high school and she went to France for a short period of time. Liz has taught the elective many times in the past and enjoys exposing students to a new language.

Journalism

  Journalism is an elective that gives kids an opportunity to write for a wider crowd and write about what’s happening at PLS.This elective is taught by Lisa Pack,PLS middle group teacher. Lisa started teaching this elective about 18 years ago when Donna Allender retired.  She feels that this is an important skill for kids and that it helps them become better writers. “Its really important for me to take the kid’s point of view into consideration. This year I thought it was important to change the way the paper is produced and so we have moved it into the virtual world. This is all new for me and I look forward to working alongside this  semester’s writers to figure this all out.”

Eighth Grade

    The eighth grade elective is an elective for the graduating class, that gives them a chance to work on things like, the Haunted House, the trip to Costa Rica and the eighth grade movie. This elective is taught by the PL Science and English teacher, Liam Gallagher. Liam wanted to teach this elective because he knew that the eighth graders needed the time to work together and there isn't a separate  eighth grade class this year . “I think it’s going well, and it provides the time we need,” says Liam. Gianna, an eighth grader says, “We do lots of work and we have really cool conversations.”

    Electives are an important part of the PLS educational philosophy. Allowing students the opportunity to have choice encourages greater participation, and helps them learn things that they may not learn in a different school.

Project Learn School Newspaper Goes OnLine

By Elie L.

There is a school newspaper at Project Learn School (PLS) called the PL Paper that students at Project Learn’s Journalism class write. This paper has been written since the school started, 42 years ago and it is where all the stuff that is happening gets written about. This year, however, the and students decided to also make a blog. The blog will be on Blogspot, and it will be exactly like the paper, just on the internet.

     Lisa Pack, one of the middle group teachers, thought of the idea of having a blog for the school paper, over the summer. She says her elective, (Journalism) will be working on it this semester. She also says that the students will put illustrations, and writing up on the blog, and she thinks of it as a chance to let the wider community know about what is happening at PLS. Sometimes she feels scared because it’s technology that she doesn’t know too much about. She thinks that the PL Paper needs to become more current in sharing information, and the blog is the perfect way. The name of the blog will be The Project Learn School Paper.

Ella Enchanted: A Movie Review

By Elie Lubin

“Ella Enchanted” the movie,  is a fun filled romantic, twisted Cinderella story, starring Anne Hathway, as Ella, and Hugh Dancy, as Prince Charmont (who likes to be called Char) . It is a fairy tale that takes place in Frell, where baby Ella is given a gift, that feels like a curse, which is always to be obedient. Can she, or can she not, live a happy, normal, life? She strives to not follow the rules of the curse, but she always has to because the curse won’t let her stop. One her way to try to find her Fairy Godmother, Lucinda, she encounters lots of close calls, and scary moments.  

   Filmed at the Ardmore Studios, in Ireland this movie creates a magical feeling.  Even though it’s not anything like the book, it’s still one of my favorite movies in the world. This movie is rated PG and a great one for the whole family to see. I would rate this movie, 5 out of 5 stars because it is so fantastic.

FTGOTS - For The Good Of The School

By Julian Whelan

FTGOTS-or ‘For The Good of the School’ is an all school meeting that happens two times each month at Project Learn School (PLS). The eighth graders run FTGOTS where students can get together, share ideas, solve problems and celebrate. FTGOTS allows students to have time to appreciate friends and share their talents.
    Debby Pollack, a former PLS art teacher, and Lisa Pack, current 9, 10, 11 year old teacher,  started FTGOTS about 10 years ago. FTGOTS stands for “For The Good of the School.” If there is a problem, the FTGOTS representatives in the planning meeting will bring it up. “We have FTGOTS so kids can also find out what some decisions have been made at Town Meeting,” Lisa said.
    Each group sends two representatives to the planning meeting. The reps bring ideas and concerns to be discussed by the whole school. The planning meetings take place in Aubrey’s room and the actual FTGOTS meeting, with all of the students, takes place in the Community Room at 8:45 a.m. every other Thursday.  During FTGOTS the reps announce things like the rules so that everyone can hears them at the same time and to prevent arguments.
    At these meetings the decisions are made using consensus. This is when everyone agrees on the proposals being presented. If there is not agreement from everyone, then the discussion continues until everyone can agree. This sometimes takes only a few minutes, but can also take a really long time. The advantage of this way of deciding is that everyone gets to hear everything, and then can’t say, “That’s totally unfair, I didn’t agree to that!”
    Students also get a chance to have the whole school sing happy birthday to them at FTGOTS. The children who have birthdays in the month of the meeting get to stand up in front of the school and say when their birthday is. Then, “everyone sings a special birthday song that Debby taught us,” Lisa added.

Front and Back Gardens at PL Get a New Look

By Dylan Allender

Front Gardens at Project Learn School

Backyard pergola at Project Learn School

Flowers and shrubs, vegetables and more flowers are all in bloom at Project Learn School (PLS).The front and back gardens had major work done to them over the summer.  Lucy Miller and her family and Anna Herman worked on the PLS gardens to make them look better.
    Lucy, her son Graham, and her husband Russell worked on making the front garden look nicer.  They planted four crepe myrtle bushes and one tree, three kinds of grasses, many flowers and about twenty or so lirope plants down the front of the garden along the edge of the sidewalk. She has been working on this garden for about three years and she decided to go all out this summer so it would look really nice. Lucy talked about why she decided to do this project.  “It makes me and my family feel good.  It makes PL families feel good,  and all the neighbors feel good.”  said Lucy.  “Over the years many kids of PL have planted things in the front yard.  The rose bush was planted by Sarah Decker many years ago.  It is a pink rose which reminds us of her spirit.”
    Anna Herman did most of her work in the back yard.  She planted a vegetable garden which has turnips, radishes, lettuce,kale, and herbs in planting boxes.  There are some green beans left to pick.  The summer vegetable are all gone. The only ones left are the fall season vegetables. Anna also had a wooden structure built in the backyard meant to be a gateway to and from the gardens. It is located closer to the climber and is called a small pergola. Anna also built planters on the sides of this structure so some plants can climb up and over the structure.
    On the right side of the  backyard, there are pollinator plants. They provide pollen, nectar and habitats for honey bees, native bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinator insects. The pollinator plants are dill, coriander, mint, phlox, sunflowers and mirinda.There is also a  metal wind structure in the pollinator garden, that moves when it is windy. Anna wanted to add an element of movement when she decided to bring that piece into the yard.
    “I think it is beautiful and fun.” said Anna when she was talking about gardening. “I think it is important for people to see where and how plants grow.  It is important to understand how hard it can be to care for food, to make food happen. When you plant a few radish seeds and three weeks later you have something to eat, it’s magic.”
    Lily Waxler, a student in Lisa’s Group said, “I think it’s neat that the school grows things.”
  Some of the teachers have used some of the veggies from the  garden to make dishes with the kids. Joan made a cream cheese spread with the radishes with Lisa’s Group and Pam Chaplin-Lobell also made some things for snacks for the AfterSchool kids.