Junior Rangers

Yesterday we had the opportunity to begin the Junior Ranger program at Bledsoe Creek State Park.  We are so excited to have this opportunity.  After a series of visits to the park as a group being led by a ranger on a variety of activities, our students will be sworn in as official Tennessee State Park Junior Rangers! 

 

Anyone can become a Junior Ranger.  For more information on how to complete the Junior Ranger program, click here!

 

PARENTS:  Please note the following time change:  The trek from Portland down to the park (in Gallatin) took a little longer in traffic than I originally calculated.  Therefore, we will be leaving school closer to 3:20 and returning between 5:30/40.  Thank you for understanding this adjustment.

Just a few photos...

Don't have a lot of time today, but I wanted to post a few pictures!

 

 

 

I had students put some of our favorite quotes on posters to put up in the chill out room.  Here are a few that I thought were really great!

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids making elephant toothpaste and doing some other experiments with yeast:

 



A visit from Miss Chattanooga!

Yesterday we had a guest speaker join us!  It was Miss Chattanooga herself, Jaclyn Torrento.  She was everything we had hoped for and more!  A senior at Belmont University and a Robertson County native, believe it or not, she competed in the Miss Chattanooga pageant to win the title that will allow her to compete in the Miss Tennessee pageant this summer.  

 

We didn't talk wardrobe and makeup while she was here.  It was community service that was the discussion and activity!  Her self-developed platform is "Hands to Larger Service" and as she walked our students through exactly what that meant, she helped them brainstorm ways to serve right here in Portland!  At the conclusion, our students were motivated to serve in our community and beyond and were loaded with community service project ideas!

 

Miss Chattanooga wasn't satisfied with just talking service.  Before she left, students made cards to be delivered to a nursing home.  Above you see Miss Torrento and the students that were remaining at the end of our day with some of their cards.  What a treat it was to have her come and speak!

 

To learn more about our speaker and her platform, visit:

www.handstolargerservice.com

SPOTLIGHT on Samantha

Better late than never!  I am finally posting our featured student art work!  I have had some technical difficulty with my computer and still can't get my images to turn the right direction.  Between the computer glitch and the snow days, I am just now getting this post up!

 

I first got to know Samantha last year and have admired her artwork since the first time I saw her drawing.  To say she is talented is an understatement!  She is an artist, musician, and all-around great gal!  We are so happy that she continues to be a part of our Unity program!

 

You can see for yourself what a great artist she is!



 

I saved my favorite picture for last!  My sister is a horse lover and used to draw horses.  The first time I saw Sam drawing a horse, I couldn't help but smile to myself.  So, of course, my personal favorite is...

 

...this horse!

 

Sam, thank you so much for sharing your talent with us!  You are a bright spot in my afternoon and I am so thankful that you are in the Unity program at West!

First Aid with Mrs. Crousser



Today was an exciting day at Unity!  Mrs. Crousser came over from the high school with some of her HOSA students to teach us some basic first aid!

 

We watched a short video on first aid, and then the real fun started!  Some of the HOSA volunteers acted out first aid scenarios to see if our Unity students could come to the rescue!  They did great!

Here, Derick treats one of the high school students for an imaginary case of heat stroke!



Jonathan got to treat a laceration!  He stopped the bleeding and dressed the wound like a champ!

Kassie was presented the challenge of coming to the aid of a choking student!  Mrs. Crousser helped Kassie perform abdominal thrusts to help the choking victim.

We had the best time learning basic first aid and now we are ready to help on the spot when it's needed!

After the presentation, the high school students administered a short first aid quiz.

The class passed with flying colors and proved that they are "smarties" when it comes to first aid.  Their reward?  A smartie from Mrs. Crousser and her crew, of course!

 

Thank you Mrs. Crousser and HOSA for a great afternoon!  We appreciate each of you being so generous with your time!

 

Stay Tuned... tomorrow I'll be featuring one of our students and her amazing art work!

Anti-bullying Presentation

Today we had a special guest...

Miss Sidney from the High School came to share her FCCLA project with us!  Her presentation was all about bullying and how to prevent it!

 She shared so many surprising statistics about bullying in our schools!  We discussed different forms of bullying and warning signs of bullying situations.

 One of the most interesting things we discussed was cyber-bullying!  It is always good to remind students how important it is to be careful when using social media sites and cell phones!

Miss Sidney reminded us all to make sure we think before we speak.  She had us wad up paper hearts and try to flatten them again.  She asked us to get all of the wrinkles out, which was impossible, of course.  This was a visual reminder that although we can say we are sorry, and that helps, we can never completely undo harm that has been caused by hurtful words.

Here are some of our students holding up their wrinkles hearts!

Each of our students were given the opportunity to sign an Anti-Bullying Pledge at the end of the class.

We thank you Miss Sidney for sharing with us today!

Now, we are gearing up for speaker #2 of the week tomorrow!  Miss Crousser will be over from the high school to teach us some basic first aid!

Welcome to our new blog!

Welcome to our Unity page! 

We are very excited to have this new space to share announcements, what is going on in our program on a daily basis, and to feature some of our students and their creative work!

The following are our announcements for this week!  Check back often for more!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

We have a speaker tomorrow (2/25) on cyber bullying and prevention and another speaker Wednesday (2/26) teaching basic first aid.  Out of respect for our speakers and to cut down on interruptions, please pick your child up between 5:30-6:00 if at all possible.

On March 3 we will be traveling by bus to Cold Spring School and then if the weather is nice, we will play at Richland Park afterward.  We will leave at 4:00 and be back at 5:30.  Please have your child dress appropriately for the weather.  You must pick up before we leave or after our return – no one will be signing out while on our trip.  Don’t forget to sign the permission slip located by the sign out sheet in our room!

On March 11, Miss Chattanooga will be here speaking and doing a project with the kids.  Please pick up your child after 5:30 if at all possible.

On March 20 we will travel by bus to Shoals Technology Group to tour their facility.  We will leave around 3:45 and be back at 5:30.  Please be watching for this permission slip soon.