The York 8 Freedom Blog has started! On the Blog, we will be talking about everything that we have so far talked about in Social Studies. There will be all the topics that we have covered so far and you can comment by writing the things that you have put in your Freedom Journal for Social Studies! I hope that you all will start blogging!

During the week of March 24th York 8 will be visited by a few speakers that will help kickoff their next expedition, The Four Freedoms. During the course of the next couple months, students in York 8 will be creating collages and writing about a freedom of their choice. During the First Friday in June, collages will be displayed in a gallery in Portland’s Old Port as a final product. Students are learning how to use their voices through writing and speaking to address the world on major issues and try to make this country a better place. More updates to come throughout the course of this expedition.

York 8 has started a new class! We have ended Tech Ed and have stared “World Cultures” a.k.a Cooking Class. Right now though, we are up to no cooking. Instead we are talking about Our Future! It is quite exciting and I think everyone is enjoying it, though people are looking forward to start coooking. The teacher’s name is Mr. LaBranche. So far we have learned work vocab. and have taken notes on colleges and professions of our choice. We are looking forward to a great rest of the year!

York 8 will culminate its Wide World of Engineering on January 30, at MECA with an art exhibit of Kinetic Sculptures. The local artist, Jill Dalton, is coming in to help the York 8 students during Tech Ed with Mr. Goodwin. York 8 started this expedition in early October with the day immersion and experiments we had in three classes. Now, in mid to late January, we are FINALLY ending Wide World of Engineering. Congrats to the York 8 odyssey of 2012, on completing their second to last expedition before leaving King.

See the pictures from this day!

Hey York 8,

Erykah and I (Shae) would like to inform you all about open seats on Blog Team. We have four open positions, and we’re looking for one kids in DSSR A and three kids in DSSR B blocks to join. To join please give us a copy of your current resume, a cover letter on why you’d be a good choice for Blog Team, and fill out an application that you can pick up from either Erykah or I! In order to be selected you must include your DSSR block on either your cover letter, which should be at least two paragraphs, your resume, or the application. These letters are due by December 20th, before 2:25. We will make our decisions before vacation ends, and then tell the selected applicants when school starts again. During the month of January we will start training you. Also, you need to take into consideration that this is during every DSSR block, you need to be able to make a commitment for at least 2 out of the 3 in the six day rotation. If you have book group that’s ok, just talk to Mr. Clifford and we’ll be able to arrange something.

“What’s happening right now?” This is what many students that attend King Middle School are asking. The school is now in a controversy of whether or not the health clinic, that is located inside the building, should be allowed to provide young men and women with birth control. Some students strongly oppose this, while others support the move. I found that the majority of students that I talked to didn’t know how they felt about it. When we asked Logan R., a seventh grader in Windsor House, he gave us his opinion on the issue, “I think that its not really a big deal, and I don’t see why the media is making a big deal out of something that’s smaller than what is being portrayed on CNN and NBC. I don’t think the parents should be deciding whether a random kid that they don’t know should get birth control… I think the kids who it affects should make the decision, since it’s theirs to make.” As you can see many KMS students have their own opinions, and we encourage opinions to be expressed. Both Shae and I wish that the media would stop spinning the facts. The media simplifies everything in order to make everything more controversial. For example, they make it look as though Mr. McCarthey is the one making the decisions, not our democratically elected school officials. The media should be focusing on what our school does, not what a health clinic, run by the city of Portland, does.

On Friday October 12th, 2007, York 8 journeyed to Lanco Assembly Systems to learn about engineering through visual specimens. They got an exclusive tour of the Lanco workplace lead by Mr. Zack (Mrs. Zack-Farrell’s father). Prior to the tour York-8 was visited by Jesse, an MIT grad student studying human interaction with robots. He spoke briefly about the current project that his group is working on. They are designing a robot named Leo, or Leonardo, who is able to identify colors, objects, people, and has a vocabulary of over two-hundred (200!) words. We will continue learning about engineering through multiple visits and presentations that are yet to come.

York 8 has begun to manage content on the blog. Our 2 editors are Shae and Erika.