On April 14, 2012 eight YBEC students from Fair Oaks, Frankford and Park Drive competed in the 2012 Pennsylvania State Championships. Each student won several medals totaling over 24 medals. Special thanks to everyone that made it possible from the administration, van drivers and especially the parents. I also would like to thank Mark, Danny and Chris for taking the time out of their schedule to make sure the guys made it there.

In Language Arts class at Park Drive YBEC, one of the favorite activities for the students is independent reading, or SSR, which stands for Silent Sustained Reading (some of the students lovingly call it "Sit-down, Shut-up and Read"). We do independent reading class one time per week. This week we are relaunching the independent reading class after a hiatus during the PSSAs (the students are pumped!).





During the independent reading class, students practice a skill that they've been taught earlier in the week. This week we were learning about the questioning strategy which helps students understand what they do and don't know as they read by "self-questioning" as they read. There are some other pretty cool things about independent reading class:

• Students read independently for up to one hour
• The students choose from a leveled library and are taught to look for books that are just right for them
• The library includes 460 books from 9 Genres
• Students participate in teacher-student reading conferences during this time to assess their skills and progress
• Students share what they've learned  with the rest of the class at the end of the reading session

Students have posted their new original stories and essays on the Distinguished Authors of Park Drive Website. Click the title of this post to go there.


















(picture created by Glen M. for his prompted narrative, to see his story go to the website.. Click the title of this post!!)

Our students are producing some really awesome stuff in the greenhouse during Greg Ellerman's science class.






















The students have already begun growing these plants and will soon sell them as seedlings!

Park Drive middle school went to take a tour of the Life Lion. While we were there they got a call, so we watched them get ready and take off.