Elementary Students Walk Their Way Across America
For the past two weeks, elementary students district-wide have been visiting states across the country. Pennsylvania. Ohio. Texas. California. You name it, they’ve been there – on their virtual hike across America, of course.

In conjunction with the New York State-wide Healthy Steps program, elementary physical education teachers Cynthia Cromer, Chuck Goebel, Bob Kraemer, and Jeremy Weber have been teaching their students – in a very unique way - that walking is a great way to stay active and healthy. “Each day for the past two weeks in our gym classes, our students spent a little time walking laps around the gym. One student would wear a pedometer. That student’s walking distance was then multiplied by the class size and recorded on a virtual hike map of the United States,” Warren Street’s phys ed teacher, Jeremy Weber explained. “The kids were really excited about it, and it became a friendly competition among the four elementary schools as to which one would earn the top honors of most miles traveled.”

Walking on a regular basis has many benefits, including the strengthening of the heart, lungs and bones, and it’s been a great way to help increase the level of physical activity among our students, Mr. Weber also said. (Photos, top to bottom: Warren Street's Virtual Hike Map is displayed in the main office. Warren Street students in Mrs. Muller's Gr 5 class enjoy walking for the Healthy Steps program.)

Warren Street Students' Poems Chosen For Publication

There’s a new book in the Warren Street library—and it has Warren Street students’ poetry published inside!

Throughout Feb and Mar 2006, students in Mrs. Nancy Lisicki’s fourth grade and Miss Nancy Nagle’s Speech class explored poetry and developed their own poetic talents. Each student wrote and submitted a piece of poetry to the National Schools Project, an organization which is designed to get students excited about writing and provide a publishing opportunity to budding young poets.

Each year, a panel of teachers and educators at NSP review submissions and then select poems for publication in the “Young American Poetry Digest,” a book that reaches a national audience. Poems are chosen on the merit of creativity, age-appropriate language, sensory/figurative images, structure and poetic techniques.

Of the 21 poems submitted by Mrs. Lisicki’s class for the Young American Poetry Digest 2006, 11 were selected for publication.

“When we began the poetry unit, I never expected students to take it as far as they did,” Lisicki said. “They spontaneously wrote beautiful, insightful poetry, and sometimes silly poetry, as well. I think we all came away from the poetry unit with much more than we expected.”

Equally enthused about the students’ accomplishment, Warren Street principal Anne Christiano said, “I am thrilled that the students at Warren Street School were selected to have their poetry published nationally. This academic achievement is a source of pride for all the staff and students. Congratulations to Mrs. Lisicki on a job well done!"

The National Schools Project donated a copy of the recently published “Young American Poetry Digest 2006” to the Warren Street library.
 

Pleasant Avenue Students Again Show Their Character
The students and staff of Pleasant Avenue School have decided to
sponsor a new initiative as part of their Character Education Program. The initiative will support "Canines for Combat Veterans," a program that supplies "service" dogs to veterans who have experienced debilitating leg injuries while in a branch of the armed forces. The program is sponsored by NEADS, the National Education for Assistance Dog Services organization, which is based in Princeton, Massachusetts. The organization has been training service dogs since 1976. Currently, the organization is funded fully through private donations, and it costs $17,000 to buy, raise, and train a service dog. The organization also sells "naming rights" for each dog, for $500, which help support the cost of providing the dogs to wounded service people.
 
The dogs are trained by prison inmates, who are allowed to keep the dogs with them in their prison cell while the dog is being trained. It takes approximately half the time to train dogs in a prison setting because they receive much more intensive training from the inmates than they would in a private setting. The inmates are very enthusiastic about the program, and have learned how to better handle responsibility. The Massachusetts State Correction Commissioner, Kathleen Dennehy, stated that the program has had a profound effect on the cultures of the six prisons that are currently training dogs.

It is our hope that we will be able to raise enough funds to name a
Canines for Combat Veterans dog, and through our donation, help a veteran who otherwise would not be self-sufficient.
 

Additional information on this program has been sent home with the Pleasant Avenue students.  Thank you to those of you who are already donating!