Techno' Class Makin' Music

Making music is lot of fun it's even better when is comes from recycled/reused items.
The Technology class, pictured below (from left to right: Randy, Tahjonae, Charleston, and Lewis) reused old bowls to make some really interesting music; Lewis even made a rap to go along with it. It was very funny, but goes to show just because it's old, doesn't mean it's not fun.

"I have a piggy, his name is Wiggy..." Lewis

Shamaria's Family Meeting

This is Shamaria's mother again. I wanted to give an update. We had our first family meeting about recycling yesterday,and I was Wowed by Shamaria's knowledge of recycling. As parents we are always the ones teaching our children, and not too many times our kids are teaching us . But the tables turned yesterday, because she did all the teaching and I listened. I was so proud of her. When I asked Shamaria how does she feel about recycling she said " It makes me feel happy b/c you can help save the planet. She also said "I feel like recycling today". The meeting was about 25 minutes long. The meeting also included Shamaria's 3 year old sister Mariyah that has her own topic which was plants. Following the meeting we went outside where me and the girls plant 2 different types of flowers from some seeds I purchased a few months ago, we also used some soil that was previously in a pot of flowers that had died, so we were able to reuse the soil we already had., It was fun but extremely hot. Will let you know how that goes : )

Air pollution

The last two weeks have been wonderful.These kids are really learning and are anxious to learn more. Last week recycling triggered their minds. They wanted to let the whole world know that they recycle and that recycling is something for everyone.

This week is a bit more challenging for we are learning about air. The main focus is air pollution. We are conducting experiments and taking pictures. Kwame...wow! He walked up to an apartment, greeted the people, and asked to take a picture. As we walked away the lady said, "That was cute."

I felt happy that they are not only learning the things we are teaching, but are applying them to daily life. ~Nazareth, 2nd and 3rd grade teacher

Chairs, tables, buildings, cars, airplanes, jets, boats--all these things pollute our air.
Jordan Hart

Last week we learned about recycling. We did a recycle race. You can recycle anywhere you go. Please recycle.
Hayzul Powell

The Earth Team and Our "Dust Catchers"

We are winners!

We’ve learned so much about recycling and air pollution. We’ve experimented and tried a lot of different things that have helped us understand both of these new concepts.

"We don’t put paper in the trash because it goes in the recycling bin. I’ve learned about air pollution and what dirty and clean air is." Monteyvion

"We pollute our air when we let smoke come out of our engines for a long period of time." Niemen

"Acid rain that comes from volcanoes pollute our air." Kyleon

"If a place is dirty the air can get dirty and if the whole air is dirty you could get sick and possibly die." Joshua

"I can see our recreation center from my house." Kyleon.

"We eat lunch there and its also where we play and we also hung our 'dust catchers'.”
Monteyvion, Josh, Kyleon, and Niemen

"The dust catchers catch dust and the things that pollute our air." Kyleon and Josh

"Its also used to see if our air is clean or dirty." Monteyvion

Niemen took the awesome picture of Mr. Cliff helping us hang up our dust catchers on the recreation building and Ms. Brandie took the picture of the Earth Team as we stood under our dust catcher.

Parent's Talking Recycling!!!

I just love to hear from parents. I received a phone call yesterday from a parent while we were on a field trip. Her daughter Shamaria attends the program and is in the Kinder class along with Trinity.

She was asking me how the field trip was going and what we were doing? I told her it was going good and that we were doing a group discussion at the Frito Lay Plant with some of their staff.

She then begin to tell me about how Shamaria was telling her that they need to start recycling. She just laughed and said, OK! Shamaria we will have a family meeting so we can talk about recycling.

I thought that was so awesome! See even when we think parents are not listening to their kids, they are.

I am not sure if they have started yet, but it is just good to know that her mom is glad about what Shamaria is learning.

The kids are moving faster than you would think...go figure..

We are up and running! Already we are making progress building our social and behavioral skills while striking some new notes with our science and technology based summer program.

Our ecology demonstration today was off the wall. There was hardly a moment to breath from building a simulated landfill, and playing recycle bingo with all kinds of plastics and paper products. I even learned that paper towels are not recycled after use because they have been soiled and are no longer considered to be "neutral". Also the landfills are loaded with paper that could be recycled to produce other paper items and other products. What a waste to put any unsoiled paper in the trash. Our kids got the message loud a clear.

We even had a break through today on a smaller scale when one young fellow saw how difficult it was to keep up his "fashionable saggy pants" and work on the hands on projects we had. With only a mild suggestion (no criticism is appropriate) he came in today and proudly announced that he had borrowed a belt just so he wouldn't be preoccupied with holding up his pants. It only took two days of struggle and just a mild prodding for him to "choose" another option. Why the big deal?

Well I have heard that we see much older young men participating in our CDM Skills Path job training programs where they are instructed on how to present themselves for employment, and some have been reluctant to accept the fact that having to adjust their saggy pants so often tells an employer that they are going to loose hours of time on the job while hoisting their pants.

This shows real social intelligence developing from natural consequences at an earlier age which is part of our behavioral coaching program this summer.

Learning about Recycling

What do you know about technology? This summer the kids will be learning about taking pictures and videos, putting them on the computer, playing computer games about recycling, using voice recorders, doing interviews, and much more.


We have a great group of ExxonMobil Green Team ambassadors who teach the classes.


This is the Tech Geniuses class. Expect great things out of them! They will be documenting the program and creating awesome videos for us to watch by the end of the summer.


One-on-one attention. The University of Values provides opportunities for kids to get to know their teachers and the teachers to get to know their kids.


This summer the kids will engage in active learning. Today they went into the aparment complex to pick up "trash." When they came back, they separated it into trash and things that could be recycled. We had full bags of recycled items by the end of the day.


Welcome, Aviant, Angel, Jailyn, Niemen, Kwane, Jordan, Joshua, Monteyvion, Hayzul, C.J., Lewis, and Justice. We are excited you are here!!