webster on the web

This is cool.

I received word from the Webster school district a few days ago about a neat project which students at Klem Road South Elementary School have undertaken.  As part of a lesson about local water resources, the kids are making rain barrels.

Here’s the letter that the project organizers sent out explaining more about it:

Students show off two of the completed rain barrels

The fourth grade science classes of Mrs. Wendy Smith, Mrs. Eva Burns and Mrs. Elizabeth Coene at Klem South Elementary will soon be making 20 rain barrels! Paul Sawyko from the Storm Water Coalition of Monroe County will be helping students with the creation of the rain barrels.

A rain barrel is something that you put beneath the gutter and the clean rainwater is held in the barrel. Rainwater is a source of unchlorinated water for your plants. Rain barrels conserve water and can provide approximately 1,300 gallons of water during the summer months.

This project is part of an educational grant from Target to enrich our study of water and the environment. We have been working with water in science since the beginning of the year. The fourth graders also have been to the Waste Water Treatment Plant and the Monroe County Water Authority to learn about our local water resources.

Once the students are done with the barrels, they’re all going to need good homes.  So if you would like a rain barrel of your own, free of charge, email Wendy Smith at wendy_smith@ websterschools.org.  She’ll contact you to make arrangements for the pick up of your rain barrel before June 15.

But you better do it soon, because I’ll bet they go pretty fast.

It’s the last full week of school for the high schools, and at Thomas that means big blue trash bins are popping up in the hallways, awaiting the tons of detritus have students have collected in their lockers throughout the year. But this year I’ve made it my goal to make sure there’s a cardboard box next to each bin, with a huge recycle symbol taped to each side.

Hopefully students will use the box and not the trash bin for good supplies when they clean their lockers.

Anyone who’s been a regular reader of my blog for the last few years knows what that’s all about.  For the last four years Webster Thomas (and Spry and Willink middle schools) have participated in a school supply recycling effort in conjunction with a terrific organization called Greenseed Educational Supplies.  For the past seven years, the volunteers at Greenseed, led by Eastridge High School science teacher Mitch Nellis, have worked with schools all over the county to collect thousands of dollars of  perfectly good school supplies at the end of every school year, saving them from the trash bins, and re-distributing them to city schools, community organizations, and even schools in Africa.

I won’t get into too many details about this amazing effort and the huge undertaking it is for Mitch every year.  You can log onto Greenseed’s website if you’d like more information about how to participate, and check out some photos I have at the end of this blog.

Some of last year’s haul, most of which was plucked from the garbage cans.

But I DID want to let you know that thanks to the strong show of support from the Spry, Willink and Thomas school communities, Webster is one of the top contributors to the recycling drive every year.  But this year we’re going to do even better. This year, the PTSAs at Plank Road North and Klem South elementary schools have decided to join the effort as well. The PTSA leaders at both these schools responded enthusiastically to my email requesting elementary school participation.

And their help couldn’t have come at a better time.   I got an email from Mitch a few days ago in which he said requests for school supplies are at an all-time high due to budget cutbacks, and at the same time some of the donating schools have dropped out this year.  He specifically asked if we knew of any elementary schools who wanted to get involved. He was thrilled to hear that Plank North and Klem South are now on board.

So if you have a student at one of these schools, watch for a flyer to come home requesting any donations you might have lying around the house.  Even partly-used spiral binders or scribbled-on binders will be appreciated come September by students who might not otherwise get any school supplies.

If your school or business would like to get involved, please email me at missyblog@gmail.com.

City school teachers are invited to select the supplies they need.

Some of the supplies go to Africa. These kids are students at the Tumaini English Language Primary School in Karatu, Tanzania.

The school is in a small mountain community called Ocotal. There are about 25 students in a one room open air classroom.