Here’s the latest updates on preparations for Antarctica! We held a competition at our school for students to design a wooden token for a project we are going to do while I am on this expedition. This idea actually was inspired by the idea of the challenge coins that are used by the military. However, those are a little too expensive and HEAVY to make and pack in my suitcase, so I thought a wooden token might work better. The students had to design an image for the front of the coin that had four components: 1) Must say “St. Bruno Parish School” on it (to represent our school), 2) must have music on it (to represent my mission), 3) must have a religious artifact (to represent our community), and 4) must have Antarctica represented on it (to represent the expedition).
On the back of our wooden tokens will be a QR code. The idea is that I will hand these out to the guests and crew on my expedition ship. They can scan the QR code and tell us where they are from, and a song that reminds them of home. When I return from my expedition, the students and I will have a list of songs from the many other cities, states, and countries that everyone I met is from. We will get the chance to explore music from our global community, and our school will have gotten the chance to spread its name around the world. It will be really fun to plot the responses we get on a map and then check out the music!
I am also setting up a book club for our school families. One of my friends lent me the book “Eve of the Emperor Penguins,” which is a Magic Treehouse series book that takes place in Antarctica. I created a facebook group for families to get the schedule and engage in discussions related to what we read. I got this idea from the Library Technology Specialist at my girls’ elementary school, as she had done a few book clubs in the past in this format. There are 10 chapters in the book, and not counting weekends or Thanksgiving, I’m gone for 10 days. The students and families who opt in will read a chapter for each day that I’m gone. Then when I come back, we’ll have an ice cream party to celebrate the reading that they did!
We had a big day today, as the students in my school got an exclusive online meeting with Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise. Students got to ask him questions about being an astronaut and about the Apollo 13 mission. After that was over, we had the Grand Opening of the Innovation Center at our school. This is a space that students will be able to discover, innovate, and create with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math). It has been fun to help with putting this together, thanks to a donation that was made in memory of a past student who passed away recently, and a former teacher who made a big difference in our school. The students of the school took part in a lunar lander challenger, to help them get used to the materials in this space. We will have the local fire station bring their ladder truck to launch the lunar landers off of on Thursday!
We also had Fox6 News come in to see how we are preparing for the Antarctic expedition, so it will be fun to see how that story comes out. They filmed me teaching, the events of the day, and even wanted to see how I was going to pack for Antarctica. It was a very fun visit! The best part was seeing the students so excited to see the reporter and camera man going throughout our school. In fact, the students did an amazing job all day – from the news visits, to their interest in our zoom with Captain Haise, to the students who spent all day practicing the question they were going to ask Mr. Haise, to the students who led the tours of our new Innovation Center. I am one lucky teacher! These kids are the best!
Car Full of Harmony 