Today's Bookmarks

Presidents speech to the nation.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/09/10/us/politics/100000002435965/obama-addresses-the-nation-on-syria.html?emc=edit_tnt_20130910&tntemail0=y

9-11 Timeline by New York State Museum

http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/wtc_timeline/zoomify.html

Erikson's Psych/Social Hierarchy

http://psychology.about.com/library/bl_psychosocial_summary.htm

An article on "Resilience".

http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/bounce.aspx

Students Ratify Class Creed

Students Ratify Class Creed.

After a two week period of review, students in Mr. Cromley and Mr. Eck's class unanimously voted to ratify the student created class creed. 

During the ceremony, presided over by Adam T., students pledged their commitment to the high ideals of their creed by signing the document. The "Signers" have already incorporated the creed into the daily routine of the classroom. The creed is also used, along with the "12-steps to become positive" and academic performance, to assess student performance and assign student ratings.

  

Students Model Constitutional Convention

Social Studies, Literature, and Writing classes combined for a very important cross-curricular unit to start out the school year. After reading numerous pieces of writing dealing with morals and character values, students discussed, debated, and created a meaningful Class Creed.

In Mr. Eck's social studies class, students studied the early history of our countries government. The Articles of Confederation were studied and the flaws of our countries first "constitution" were discussed. Understanding the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, students then learned how Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, John Adams, and other early leaders advocated for a second convention.

Mr. Cromley focused the language arts classes on readings that dealt with the importance of strong character values and a moral foundation. Students read ancient creeds like the Athenian Oath. They reviewed contemporary pieces like the Boy Scout Oath and The American Creed. Other popular pieces - "Everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten", "Law of the Jungle", and "Charge of the Light Brigade" - were compared to the normative system of the PATH Alternative Ed. program.

Ms. Steph introduced the Path of Life Model, discussing the values and healthy traits that are the foundation of the model. As part of the therapeutic group, traits of successful students were also discussed.

Using the knowledge and wisdom acquired in their studies, the students modelled our countries founding fathers and convened a student convention to discuss the creation of a student oath or creed. Mr. Cromley presented "The rules of discussions" and the students debated on what they felt needed to be included in their resolution. By the end of the week, a rough draft had been agreed upon. The students agreed to postpone ratification of the document to allow a time for reflection. If any parts needed to be changed, they would reconvene. 

Zombie Apocalypse Threatens Start of School Year

Along with the typical "start of the school year" activities - reviewing the student handbook, discussing program norms, taking standardized assessment tests - students were informed that they would be test subjects in an Umbrella Corporation experiment (It's a zombie/Resident Evil thing - ask your teenager). Fearing for their lives, the students formulated an escape plan. After by-passing the research facilities security and navigating their way through a monstrous zombie-spider's web, they were relentlessly pursued by brain hungry zombies. Sadly, many of the students were bitten by the zombies and eventually succumbed to the zombie virus, becoming mindless beasts themselves. The remaining students managed to assemble the components for an anti-virus and deliver it to a special recovery team. The valiant efforts of the student have protected Milton from the devastations of a zombie epidemic.

Well . . . OK. That didn't really happen, but it was the scenario played out over the first week of school during several team-building exercises.

Six students and 3 staff participated in the orientation week activities. After some ice-breakers, the class took on the challenge of the Spider Web. The team needed to get from one side of an enormous spider web to the other without touching the web. Each opening in the web could only be used once. Effective communication and entrusting others were skills emphasized.

The next day everyone played in a zombie themed game dreamed up by Mr. Cromley. The rules of the game will be published in another post. The game involved a lot of running, balloons tied to players to represent brains, brain hungry zombies, and (did I mention?) lots of running.

On the last day of orientation week, students learned how to use a GPS. Then, using GPS coordinates that would lead to the zombie anti-virus, the class hiked to the Milton State Park and recovered the anti-virus. En-route, they were required to overcome "pit-falls" or team-building challenges. An important lesson was learned about the importance of working together when some students attempted to clear an obstacle without assistance. They were, as individuals, unsuccessful. Nearly half of the group did not make it across when individuals tried to cross. When the team communicated with each other and worked together the challenge was easily mastered.

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After locating the anti-virus, participants met for a barbecue. Discussion during the group meal reflected on the lessons learned during the week.

Officers Elected

As part of an ongoing study of The Constitution and American Civics, the students of the downstairs class modeled and held their own elections.






Elections for the four offices were held on September 26. Matt K. was elected "The Bull" or Class President. Jeremy L. was selected by his peers to serve as the Sergeant-at-Arms (sort of a cross between Vice-President and Sheriff) and Dakota B. was chosen to serve as Quarter-Master. The most contested position was the PATH Academic Liaison (PAL). After a round speeches by the four candidates, the class responded to the sincere and heartfelt comments of Jose C.. Jose explained how he wishes to demonstrate that he can be a responsible and motivated student so that he can return to his home school district.


The following day, during a special ceremony that included the signing of the Downstairs Class Pledge, the officers were sworn into their positions. They will serve in these offices until the end of the marking period.

Student Pledge Ratified

After two weeks of vigorous discourse and debate, the students of the "Downstairs Class" have reached agreement on their class Pledge.

Students have been studying the founding of our country and The Constitution of the United States. As part of the experience, the young people in Coach Kiss and Mr. Eck's class have been tasked with creating and adopting their own oath or creed. The final document was to provide a framework that students could use to guide and assess their behavior within their classroom community. The process was a long one, but the journey resulted in a worthy Pledge.

Before the students could start to design their Pledge, they participated in several days of inquiry into "values" and character traits. The beliefs of our founding fathers - George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, and other early leaders of the United States - were compared to the beliefs and values of the students. Mr. Eck ensured that the virtues of academia were also included.

Then, much like the designers of the Constitution, the students convened a convention. The first day of the convention, the students were given very little guidance from the staff. The ensuing chaos provided an important lesson on the importance of having order. The second day of the convention, Mr. Eck opened with a lesson on parlimentary procedures. The students selected Jeremy L. as the chairman and the following sessions were more productive.

On the twenty-sixth of September the students held an election for class officers. Under the leadership of the new student leadership, the class held a final review of their document and voted to ratify the 2011/2012 class pledge. During a special ceremony the following day, students swore to do their best to uphold the ideals of the document by signing the pledge.

Orientation Week

By Natosha P.

Monday 29, 2011 was the first day back to school for Milton, Path AEP students. The teachers had gathered several different activities to orientate us back into a school routine. Monday through Wednesday the upstairs and downstairs classes did several different things to get to know each other better. For instance, the students were put into groups to see how well they worked together. The students were put into four different groups. The students were given a bucket of water and a bar of soap. The object of the activity was to work together to see how long the bar of soap took to dissolve in the water.  We also went over the Path of Life with Miss Steph. The Path of Life is a model of life, good decisions, and getting back on track.

Teams compete against each other
to see who can dissolve a bar of soap fastest