Interview at the South Bend Center for the Homeless

            Tom has been living at the South Bend Center for the Homeless for 22 months and just moved  into the men’s house. He said that the move went well, and he also said that he has accumulated a lot of things in the short two years he spent there. All of the support that the Center provided really helped him out. I could sense almost a kind of pride that was emanating from him as he spoke about the different programs that he took. Such programs include the Sosh and Star programs. The Sosh program is a program that teaches people about themselves and about how to fix what they got into. The Star program is more about getting jobs and keeping jobs. Another program helps residents get there GED.

             Tom began his life in a pretty poor situation. His Dad, who was an alcoholic, abused his mother very much and he witnessed it. His dad, when he wasn’t drunk, was a pretty good guy who loved his children. He worked at Studebaker while his mother was a cook. When Tom was a teenager life got a lot better, he and his family went to a cottage that his family owned and really enjoyed the summers spent there. For 35 years Tom worked for ESP which was a plastic factory that was based in Elkhart.

            Things began to go downhill when he became increasingly more depressed. He became divorced from his wife and started on the road to homelessness. When he was kicked out, he took shelter at the Center for the Homeless. Again, he has had much support from the staff and his coach. Coaches are people who volunteer to help the guests on the road to turning their lives around. They inspire the guests and check up on them so that they are not slacking off.

            The center also has a plethora of personalities. That can sometimes be a good thing. The guests interact with each other and begin to build long lasting friendships. People can clash and become bitter towards each other. The staff is kind of like the mediator of all of these personalities. They are nice, but can also be tough. They need to be so the guests don’t become accustomed to it. A word of advice that Tom offered me is to stay in school and never think you’re above any job. I will keep that in mind for the rest of my life. Altogether, I believe that the Center for the Homeless helps people, in more ways than one, more than any other regular old shelter could. 

Submitted by: James- A junior high student at The Montessori Academy at Edison Lakes

The Ducks Have Arrived!

An exciting thing happened in the Junior High classroom; we had a baby, duck. Its name is lil’ Sheldon. It is rapidly growing and becoming a nuisance. We are all sitting in the room, quietly trying to learn when a few peeps were heard from the corner of our classroom. We all stop and are immediately enthralled in the adorable, cuteness of baby Sheldon. We are trying to learn about embryotic development when we observe the ducks, even when they are in their eggs for this goes along with this cycle in health which is reproduction. Learning about this and watching the ducks grow promises to be a very interesting endeavor. We would like to thank Mrs. Hill for organizing this by getting us some of the ducks, the incubator and leading us in this experiment.  

BOOK FAIR LUAU

There will be some changes coming to TMA’s Library in the next few weeks!  The Book Fair Luau will be making a festive stop at our school from Wednesday, May 9^th, to Tuesday, May 15^th.  Hours during school days will be 8:20am to 5:00pm.  Saturday, May 12^th, will be family day, with the Fair being open from 10:00am to 4:00pm.  Parents will have the chance to choose books with their children for their summer reading enjoyment.

The Library will be turned into a fun beach-themed luau with tikis, surf boards, and hanging palms.  One of the books being offered with this theme will be Pig Kahuna. In this picture book, two little pigs discover some beach fun with a surf board.  Froggy and his family have a warm Aloha when Froggy Goes to Hawaii.

Since this year marks the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, several Titanic books will be available. There will be a special two-book set from Magic Tree House: Tonight on the Titanic and a companion nonfiction “Fact Tracker” book to answer all of your Titanic questions.  Remembering the Titanic follows specific people who worked on the Titanic or were her passengers.  It starts with her building, tells of her crash and sinking, and finishes with the eventual rescue of the survivors.

These and many, many more books of different reading levels and on a wide range of subjects will be available under the swaying palms.  There’s sure to be something for all the readers in the family.  See you at the Book Fair Luau.  Mahalo!

Submitted by: Linda Meyer- Assistant Librarian at The Montessori Academy at Edison Lakes

Interview with Mrs. Miri Johnson of Sulam Tsur School, Israel

Mrs. Johnson is a school teacher in Israel who came to visit our classroom on Friday, March 23rd. She lives on a Kibbutz in Rosh Hanikra near the Lebanese border. This of course is under constant threat of attacks from a terrorist group called the Hezbollah that is stationed in Lebanon. But, other than this the kibbutz that she lives on is a very nice place to live located near the shores of the Merditerranean. A kibbutz is a very close knit community.  They work on it together and everybody helps the community in some way. Because of this she is very close with her students and is able to watch them grow up. A little bit more about Mrs. Johnson is that her husband is the dairy man and raises cows for milk. He then delivers it around the kibbutz. She then has two daughters who are around our age. The reason that she came to our class is that last year, we did an art project on the Holocaust. We sent our art projects to Israel while the students in her class sent theirs to us. This experience was pretty cool because it was interesting seeing the point of view of a different country about we were studying. Anyway, the school is considered a green school. This means that they have solar panels, the main recycle drop off is at the school and they have a really awesome gardens. We had a really good time with Mrs. Johnson, and she even taught us a few Israeli folk dance moves. We are very much looking forward to keeping in touch with her and her class.

Submitted by: The Junior High Class at The Montessori Academy at Edison Lakes

Junior High Windfall Project

The Junior High did yet another push-pin project. This year it was an idea by Mrs. Hill: the Notre Dame leprechaun. The leprechaun is very colorful and looks awesome. Completing the project was a challenge as we kept running out of push-pins. The project required lots of patience and hard work. The myth of the leprechaun originated in Ireland in 1604. According to legend, It had lots of gold which it hid behind the rainbow. We chose this particular picture because many of us support the Fighting Irish in all their endeavors. GO IRISH!!!!! 

Submitted by: Bob Feferman- Junior High Teacher at The Montessori Academy at Edison Lakes

Science Fair

This year science fair went very well. The topic for the Junior High was an environmental impact study. All of our projects had to do with environmental problems in our area. Some projects dealt with bacteria growth on the school phones, food waste at our school, and if lead can still be found in soils at historical sites.  We had to find out how our experiment could help the environment and raise awareness for a certain cause in a good way.

This year's attendance was very high. It seemed as though many people enjoyed our experiments and left with new knowledge about the world around them. We would like to give a shout-out to Mrs. Hill for helping us with our experiments. Without her help, our experiments would have been a lot less cool and would have not have been as great as they were.

Submitted by: Bob Feferman- Junior High Teacher at The Montessori Academy at Edison Lakes

The True Meaning of Sports

Many would be believe that the only thing that matters in sports is winning. Actually, winning is the least important thing. Do not get upset, there is more to the story.

Let us consider this small example of a sporting event I love. I love March Madness! Let's say that 64 teams are invited to the tournamet. Well, if winning was the only thing that was important then we could say that only one team is a winner and 63 teams are losers. This is far from the case. First of all, if the other teams did not show up to the tournament, who would play?  Secondly, we must also applaud all the hard work each team displayed throughout the season to be invited to the tournament. (Plus, all the hard work all the other teams demonstrated who were not invited to the tournament.)  And lastly, we can not afford to overlook the personal satisfaction that each of the men and women achieve by improving each game, learning to work together as a team and learning life lessons. They learn about committment, displine, dedication, perserverance and desire just to mentiontion a few. These lessons are far more important than the game itself.

So, is it the winning that matters? I would say no. Winning is only the decoration on the cake. Preparing the cake is what is important. (Although, we do love the icing!)

Submitted by: Michael Poole- Junior High Teacher and Athletic Director at The Montessori Academy at Edison Lakes