News Blog

Fourth and fifth grade teachers Ms. Eileen McGinley at Raymond Park Intermediate Academy, Mr. Greg Butler at Hawthorne Elementary, and Ms. Meg Niehaus at Lowell Elementary and their students will be participating in an exciting distance learning program during the month of February entitled "One Book-One Nation."  For the past few weeks, Ms. McGinley, Mr. Butler, and Ms. Niehaus have been collaborating with media specialist, Ms. Tonya Martin, to choose a novel, plan activities, and connect with another school in the United States.  The program will run approximately four weeks with Raymond Park connecting with a school in Louisiana, Hawthorne with a school in New Jersey, and Lowell with a school in Texas.  The novel, "Emily's Fortune" by Phyllis Naylor, will either be read, listened to via MP3 player or a combination of both.  Corresponding literacy, math and social studies activities, written by the Warren teachers and their partner teachers in the other three states, will then be conducted in each classroom.  The students will then meet via distance learning to see and hear their partner school discuss the book and do activities together.  The initial "meet and greet" will allow the Warren students to tell their team school what makes their class in Warren Township and their state of Indiana special.  The Warren students will then listen to their team school talk about their location and classroom and what it is like to live in a different region of the United States.  Many of the participating student in the Warren schools have been pouring into the libraray checking out books and getting online to research the state they will be partnered with.  The final culminating activity at the end of the project will connect all six classrooms with an Internet "bridge" service so that all six classrooms can virtually be connected and celebrate all theie hard work together.  This program was supported through a grant provided by Meijer located on East Washington Street.

Warren students will not only be engaged in the story and learn comprehension strategies, but they will have the opportuntity to chart out and practice map and math skills during the "One Book-One Nation" activity.  How many miles will Warren students cover?  To find that out, the students will need to chart out and determine how many miles there are between all of the states!